Tax: Consultants & GPs

You may know that I specialise in advising top medical professionals, this is a message aimed at them, but equally the message about declaring income accurately to HMRC should be heeded by all.

In January the Inland Revenue (HMRC) provided a tax amnesty aimed at members of the medical profession with a focus on high earning consultants and GPs. As you may already know as a GP or Consultant you have a higher than average chance of being investigated by HMRC - not a pleasant experience!

HMRC launched the 'Tax Health Plan' (THP) in which they offer a reduced penalty of 10% for those who came forward with details of unpaid tax liabilities.This is the penalty on top of the income tax that also needs to be paid.

The amnesty deadline came to and end at the end of June 2010. It is estimated that there are about 28,500 GPs, dentists and health professionals that HMRC believe may have undeclared earnings. To date approximately 1,500 (5%)have applied to enter into the scheme declaring a total of £9 million of untaxed income. So that's an average of £6,000 of undeclared income per person.

The official channels to declare under the scheme are now closed. However HMRC has stated that it will still accept disclosures throughout August until 1 September 2010. These disclosures will not benefit from the 10% guaranteed penalty under the original plan, but it is expected to be less than the usual 40% plus under an investigation.

Don't forget that as we are now in a 50% income tax regime, ensuring that you have declared income correctly is highly important. Make sure that your Accountant is on the ball. We are in an age where HMRC is fairly sanguine about collection of taxes!

Stay the course

I sometimes use the analogy about the need for a regular financial review rather like plotting a course and ensuring that you remain on track, readjusting where necessary. Jackie Cobell (56) set out to swim 21 miles from Dover to Calais and ended up swimming over three times as far (65 miles) due to tidal changes and officially became the slowest person to swim across the channel. The effort and determination that she demonstrated is frankly amazing. So a big well done to her! She has raised money for charity in the process. It could have all been considerably easier though had the right adjustments been made en route.... perhaps you should review your financial planning, which can easily become "off track".

Do you have a budding artist in the family?

The BBC report that today, the Williamson family from Norfolk are £150,000 better off following the successful sale of a number of paintings. All painted by their seven year old son, Keiron. He even has his own website.

Persevere

For those of you that know that I love movies, here's one that I would put on my suggested list: Julie & Julia. Actors include the ever brilliant Meryl Streep and frequent co-star Stanley Tucci. Throw in Amy Adams and you've got a pretty decent recipe for success. This is a film about finding your passion and perseverance - or at least that is what I took from it. The backdrop for the story is the culinary skills of Julia Child's - the original Delia Smith. Its a charming movie and reminds us to never give up and to look life square in the eye. Good advice in any walk of life. Helpful tips for bloggers and would-be published authors too.

The Global Economic System

Here is a video that was brought to my attention today. It is deliberately provocative and raises some excellent questions and provides thoughtful insights into our global economic system. If you are already one of our clients that invests with ethical criteria this will be of interest, but I would encourage everyone to consider this short, creative piece.

Arnie gets Fizzical

There was something about the idea of the Californian Governor talking about fiscal responsibility as the "would be" eighth largest economy in the world remains in significant "meltdown". All those Arnie films lend themselves so readily to the idea of dramatic meltdown, but even Arnie is having a tough time fighting something as paperweight as an economic disaster. Something about the story reminded me of the old Corona fizzy drink adverts - let's get fizzical... I mean fiscal.



The BBC cover this story in alarmist fashion today

Ethical Investment Week: 7-13 November 2010

For those of you that have expressed a desire to use our Good Life or Purity portfolios (applicable to all main forms of investments - pensions, ISAs, Unit Trusts etc) you may be interested to know that the annual push for ethical investment awareness is being held again this November.

I have been advising on ethical investment since 1992,at that time there were very few ethical or green funds. This has changed significantly over the years, though there are still no retail ethical funds with special geographical representation via the UK for Emerging Markets, Japan, Far East Excluding Japan and North America. However our Good Life and Purity portfolios achieve a proper risk model adjusted solution for clients.

I will update you in due course about the Ethical Investment Week and let you know how/if/when we are specifically involved.

Metro Bank

The talk sounds promising, I wonder what the content will be like, here's the promotional video for Metro Bank which is available via their website and YouTube as well.

Whilst there are obvious advantages of 7 day opening, I have to admit that I'm not of the view that this is really a healthy model for a well balanced life and longer hours of operating does not really make a revolution. Anyway, lets see how Metro do.. they seem to have beaten several well known competitors to the punch.

I'm expecting the banking world to gradually increase competition for disatisfied customers, but high street banking is really a volume game, mass sales and mass market.

Let me know your thoughts on the new bank and whilst you are at it, your own existing Bank experience.



The metrobank website is found at www.metrobankonline.co.uk

A New Bank

During the analysis of the credit crunch, the soothsayers suggested that a new world order of banking would emerge. The retail banking sector took a step forward today with the launch of a genuinely new bank, the first "new" bank for many years.

Retirement Age Change

The BBC report today that the fixed age for retirement is to be abolished, meaning that employers do not have "right" to terminate an employment contract at the age of 65. This is good news for those approaching retirement age that wish to continue to work. In practice it is all part of the wider story that the State would prefer retirement to be deferred thereby saving payments and maintaining income tax revenues and keeping the good ship UKplc afloat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10796718

New Website

I'm delighted to announce that we have been working on improving our marketing and our website and have now launched the new look website. In truth we are still tinkering with it and I'm one of those people that sees ways to make improvements which is a mixed blessing to our marketing and web design team. Anyway, do check out our site which I expect to improve with many new features being added.

http://www.solomonsifa.co.uk